An Error in the Plan
by shadypatrolkyd
Summary: The Autobots on Earth just went out to investigate a Decepticon signature that came across their radar... now they're all human. Main Characters: Jazz, Prowl, Ratchet, Red Alert, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker (Two of My OC's)
1. A Small Problem

Where's Sunny?! was Sideswipes first coherent thought. He couldn't feel him through their bond, there was just an empty space where Sunstreaker was supposed to be. That would mean…

Sideswipe opened his optics and tried to sit up. His back protested all the way and his vision blurred a bit with it. He felt, weird. _:Sunny? Sunny where are you!:_ he tried through his comlink. It wasn't working, there wasn't even static.

Sideswipe tried standing, and with some difficulty he did so. His vision blurred again before automatically focusing on a black and yellow frame some 50 away from him. Sunny.

Sideswipe started in his direction, running as best he could with his vision spinning. He was halfway there when he almost fell into...a giant footprint? It was almost as long as he was tall. He would've thought about it longer but Sunny lay just a few paces away.

He ran up to him but, Sunny looked… different. His face was a light tan color instead of the usual metallic one. All of the bright colored metal looked more like the human armour than exoskeleton armour, attached with buckles and ties. Sunny's helm looked the same though but, he looked human.

"Sunny?" Sideswipe asked a bit disbelievingly. "Sunny!" He yelled louder when he didn't move.

Sunstreaker's beige blond eyebrows knit together and he groaned. "Sunny?" Sideswipe asked again.

Sunstreaker groaned again and opened his eyes. "What happened?" He tried to sit up and Sideswipe helped him. "I don't…" Sideswipe looked around. Near them was a small crater with smoke swirling out of it. As he continued to look around he noticed the forms of other autobots lying about, some of them beginning to stir, "I think there might've been an explosion."

Sunstreaker ran a hand down his face then looked at his brother, very obviously doing a double take. "What?" Sideswipe asked, noticing his brother looking at him like he'd grown a second head.

"You look, different." He said plainly, looking up at him from where he still sat on the ground.

"You look pretty special yourself Sunny." He laughed lightly but Sunstreaker's stare didn't waver.

"The name's Sunstreaker." He glared at his brother. "And no you… look human." Sideswipe looked like one of the human knights that he read about, except the armour looked like Sideswipe's normal battle armour.

"Mah mechs?" The twins both turned their heads when they heard Jazz's unmistakable voice. What they saw was not what they had expected. The person who spoke had the same helm and visor as jazz, but his plating… skin was a warm chestnut brown with white teeth that flashed when he grinned. He had on black and white special ops body armour with a blue stripe going down the middle of the chest piece.

"Jazz? That you?" Sideswipe asked, grinning.

"Yeah, 'ts me." He looked between the two twins, then did it again. "Well you two look different." He laughed sharply, a tinge of worry was behind it.

"Could say the same to you." They said in unison.

"Where's Prowl?" Sideswipe asked curiously, he didn't see him nearby.

Jazz instantly darted his head around. The twins looked at each other. Basically everyone knew that Jazz and Prowl were a thing, except of course, _Jazz and Prowl_.

"You look for Prowl, Sunny and I will go and look for Ratch and Red Alert." Sideswipe clapped a hand on the back of Jazz's shoulder as he already started walking away. Jazz started off in the opposite direction.

Siideswipe got a few paces away when he realized his brother wasn't following him. He turned around. Sunstreaker was still on the ground, but his face was contorted in pain and he was holding his leg. "Don't try to get up Sunny," he said taking a step towards his brother.

"Don't, call me, Sunny." He ground out, trying to get up again.

"Ok...Sunshine. Just stay here until I find Ratchet ok?" Sunstreaker slumped back down and huffed, before nodding.

Sideswipe went back to looking for Ratchet and Red Alert. He found them easily with both of their bright reds and oranges. Ratchet, oddly enough had loose braid of red and white hair that stuck out from under his helm. He had a red and white paramedic's jumpsuit with red crosses on both shoulders. Over that he had a black bullet-proof vest. Red Alert was probably the least armoured out of all of us. His helm was similar, and he had a red jacket with the word, "SECURITY" stamped in all caps on the back, with black pants to top it off.

"We should call for pick up." Red Alert paced back and forth once they got back to Sunstreaker.

"We can't yet," Ratchet told him while he looked over Sunstreaker's leg, "Jazz hasn't found Prowl yet."

"He needs to hurry, it isn't safe." Red Alert continued to pace.

"What's bugging you Red, I mean, besides the usual." Sideswipe asked with a bit of a smirk, which Ratchet glared at him for.

"I can't access any of it."

"Any of what?"

"Codes, security feeds, arrival times and depart times, none of it! I can't comm anyone, I don't know the exact coordinates of where we are, when we'll be back, who's coming to pick us up…" Red Alert trailed off, a shaking hand pinching the bridge of his nose. From where the others were sitting they could see a sheen of sweat over Red Alert's now pale face. He was probably about to go into a full blown episode.

"Red Alert," Ratchet said quietly but firmly, "Sit down." Red Alert paced a few more steps before sitting down on a large rock that was conveniently nearby. There were no electricity sparks between his horns but his breathing got faster. "Red Alert," Ratchet walked over and crouched so that he was eye level with him, "Go like this," He cupped his hands over his nose and mouth, and after a few moments Red Alert mirrored his actions, his hands shaking slightly as he did so. "Just breathe slowly," Ratchet told him, "In…. and out." He directed Red Alert until his breathing slowed back to it's normal rate.

"Sorry." Red alert mumbled, running a hand over his face. "No need to be sorry." Ratchet patted him on the shoulder before returning to Sunstreaker.

oOo

Jazz looked for Prowl, somewhat frantically at this point. They were in the middle of a forest when the explosion went off, and the blast radius was a good hundred feet before it reached the treeline, and Prowl was nowhere to be seen. Jazz started at the edge of the circle and began to walk around it, looking into the trees for anything that looked like Prowl. He'd been walking for a good 15 minutes when Sideswipe ran up to him.

"Hey Jazz, need any help?"

"Yeah Sides, how's the otha mechs doin?" He asked, genuinely interested in how the team was faring, but did not actually look at Sideswipe when he asked.

"Well, Red's just had another one of his glitches, so he's staying by Hatchet, who's trying to figure out what's wrong with Sunny."

"What's wrong with Sunny?" Jazz glanced at Sideswipe, then back into the trees.

"Well something's wrong with his leg. I think it's bad. He can't stand on it and usually Sunny just toughs it out but…" Sideswipe trailed off when something caught his attention. "Prowl!"

Jazz spun and followed Sideswipe who darted into the brush. A few paces in, behind some brush a white gloved hand stuck out. Jazz ran over to it and just around the bend lay Prowl.

His frame was lying awkwardly against a tree, his head slumped forward. Jazz noticed immediately that his helm looked different. He walked over and gently tilted his head up. "Prowl, hey its Jazz. Wake up buddy." Prowl's face had the same features but had a very fair complexion instead of the light silver he was used to. Jazz brushed some ash blond, almost white hair off of his forehead.

Prowl opened his eyes slowly before quickly shutting them. The light made his head hurt, more than it already was. He groaned and brought his hands up to his head to hold it. He was immediately confused when he felt hair instead of his helm. He tried to open his eyes again and he found someone who looked a lot like Jazz standing in front of him. "Hey Prowler, you're aight. Don't try 'ta move just yet." He sounded like Jazz too.

"Look what I found," Sideswipe appeared from behind Jazz, waving something in the air, too fast for Prowl to focus on.

Jazz turned to see what Sideswipe was holding. It was Prowl's helm… no, helmet. Prowl's helmet. "Just hang on 'ta that, Ah don't think he should put it back on just yet." _:Ratchet, we found Prowl, Ah think he hit his head pretty good.:_ Jazz paused and waited for a response, a frown settling on his face when he didn't get one.

"If you're trying to use the comm, they're not working." Sideswipe told him. He had the same realization earlier.

"What happened?" Prowl's words were slow and slurred. Jazz's brow furrowed, trying to remember himself.

"We went out on a mission because we thought that we picked up a deception pod signal, but when we got here there was no pod, an explosion happened and now…" He glanced back at Sideswipe, "we're human." Prowl nodded slowly.

"Explains this," he rubbed hand through his hair, some of it just long enough to get in his eyes. Jazz smirked, glad that Prowl was ok.

"Can ya walk Prowler?" Jazz rested a hand on his shoulder, rubbing his thumb in small circles.

"I think so." Jazz backed up and offered Prowl a hand. Once he stood up Prowl swayed in place. Jazz wrapped an arm around Prowl's waist to steady him. Prowl's waist was really the only place you could hold onto him when he had his door wings, so this was a habit.

"Ya good?" Prowl just stared ahead. "Prowl?"

"Huh?" He looked at Jazz, who shared a worried look with Sideswipe.

"You good now?" He tried again. Prowl nodded slowly and Jazz let go of him.

oOo

"Where are they?" Sunstreaker asked suddenly, twisting as far as he could in his sitting position, absently clutching a hand to his chest.

"Something wrong?" Red Alert gestured to the arm Sunstreaker didn't know he'd been holding against him, and let it drop. This drew Ratchet's attention from his leg and up to him.

"Ts nothin." He avoided Ratchet's gaze and tried to clamp down on his growing paranoia Ratchet kept staring.

"Sunstreaker," Ratchet's voice became a bit harder, "If there's something you're not telling me,"

"Ts nothin, just-" he took a deep breath and looked Ratchet in the eyes.

"I used to be able to always feel him there…" he tapped his chest.

"Your and Sideswipes bond." Ratchet clarified.

"Yeah, but since I woke up…" he trailed off again.

"You haven't been able to, sense him?" Ratchet asked. He knew the two rascals were split spark twins, rarest as they come but, he didn't have the first idea of how that worked.

Sunstreaker nodded. "It's probably because we are currently human." Ratchet explained, but Sunstreaker gave him a blank look which hinted at him to go on. "Human twins don't usually have the same connections that cybertronians have." Sunstreaker looked a bit surprised by this.

"They don't?" He blinked. He couldn't imagine never having a spark bond with his brother. It would just be, lonely."

oOo

"Look what we found." Jazz called over to the other mechs.

Three heads popped up to see Jazz, Sunstreaker, and trailing a bit behind them was what they could gather as Prowl. He looked like a riot cop. He had black armour covering his shins and forearms, and white armour covering his thighs and upper arms, along with a black riot vest, buckles galore.

Red Alert grinned and a touch of a smile met Sunstreaker's lips, but Ratchet was up and walking in Prowl's direction.

Prowl stopped when he noticed a frame in front of him. Ratchet, judging by the colors.

"Prowl?" Prowl swayed in place and didn't acknowledge that Ratchet had said anything. "Prowl?" He waved a hand in front of his face. Prowl's eyes fluttered slightly before eventually squinting at Ratchet.

"Ratchet?" He asked, as Ratchet took one of his arms and draped it over his shoulders. He was honestly glad that he did, he felt he might fall over any second.

"He hit his head Doc." Ratchet walked Prowl over and set him down across from Red Alert and Sunstreaker, his back to the sun.

"I noticed that Sideswipe." He waved a hand in front of Prowl's face, then did it again. Prowl looked dazed. "What's your designation?" Ratchet asked him.

"C'mon Ratch he knows his own na-" Ratchet glared at Sideswipe until his mouth snapped shut.

"If I had a wrench i'd throw it at you." And he wasn't kidding. He turned back to Prowl, Jazz coming over and standing next to him. "What's your designation?"

"Prowl." He answered tiredly, bringing one knee up he rested an arm on it and rubbed his eyes.

"What is your rank?"

"Autobot second in command." he didn't open his eyes again, his head hurt less without the light.

"Ok good." Ratchet nodded, thinking of more questions. "What is your best friends designation?"

"Its," he paused a moment, ran a hand through his hair but flinched when he hit a sore spot, a whole new wave of pain going through his head at the movement.

"What is your best friends designation?" Ratchet asked again.

"You just asked that." Prowl said slowly.

"You forgot to answer." Ratchet said, a small smile flashed on his face, but was gone as quickly as it appeared.

"His name's… his name's Jazz. Jazz. His name, is Jazz." He repeated slowly. Jazz smiled a bit and rubbed Prowl's shoulder.

"Where are you right now Prowl?" Ratchet nodded to Jazz.

"I don't… Earth. I am on Earth." Ratchet frowned.

"Do you know where on Earth?"

" I… no, I don't know." Prowl's head was beginning to hurt worse now.

"Prowl how did you get injured?" Ratchet looked him over, ignoring the worried look he was getting from Jazz.

"I crashed." Prowl tried opening his eyes again but instantly regretted it when the light seemed to ignite the pain everywhere in his head. Ratchet looked up to Jazz who shook his head. "I told him earlier."

"Prowl, how did you get injured?" Ratchet tried again.

"I dont...I crashed." Prowl repeated. "No… no I didn't…" Prowl's eye brows knit together in either concentration or pain, Jazz couldn't tell. "We drove here, then… I don't know."

"Ok." Ratchet nodded. "Where did Jazz find you?"

"I, I don't know."

"What was the first thing you did when you woke up?"

"Walked." Prowl's head really hurt now. Every little movement seemed to shake everything up. The light made all of the aches turn into stabbing pains that didn't mellow out until about 5 minutes after he closed his eyes. "Mhm tired…" Prowl let his head lay against his arm.

"No you need do stay awake. Jazz keep talking to him and asking him questions. Nothing too difficult." Jazz sat down next to Prowl, and looked up at Ratchet questioningly.

"I think he has a concussion." He gestured to Prowl, " I don't know how bad it is so I don't want him to go to sleep."

"Why?" Came Sideswipes flat question. "Because if he goes to sleep and the damage is as severe as it could be, he could go into stasislock. Or..." he paused, trying to find the right word. "Coma. A coma is similar to stasis except humans cannot be woken from it, they have to wake up themselves."

"How long does it usually last? A coma I mean." Red Alert questioned.

"I'm not sure. My knowledge on human function I admit is… lacking. But from what I've heard they can last up to a couple of years at most."

All of their faces went blank, before turning to Prowl who had his head against his arm and groaned here and there quietly.

"Red Alert, do you remember the location of the strike team that was supposed to wait for us?" Red Alert nodded.

"I believe they're just a few clicks in that direction." He pointed behind Ratchet.

"Ok, Sideswipe you help Sunstreaker, Jazz you help Prowl. We need to start heading in that direction now, unless someone's comm is working?" All except Prowl shook their heads. "Let's get a move on then."


	2. Abbott and Costello

**_Authors Note:_**

**_Aye guys, so I got really inspired at 3a.m. and wrote most of this... hope you enjoy and be sure to comment your thoughts on this chapter, it really helps me figure out where to go from here._**

"Red you said a couple of clicks, this is more like 20." Sideswipe complained, and not for the first time in the last hour. They were in the shade of the timber for the first 20 minutes but it was difficult for Sunstreaker to get through the brush, even with Sideswipes help. They eventually got back to the dirt road they had driven in on, and began following that, the sun bearing down on them.

"Well sorry that I no longer have the pinpoint accuracy of a satellite." Red Alert fired back, but it lacked any venom. He sounded more disappointed in himself than in Sideswipes inconvenient complaining. "I feel like we should've passed them by now."

"What do you mean?" Ratchet stopped walking, Sideswipe almost running himself and Sunstreaker into him.

"So I know that they were in this general area right," he waved one of his hands around. "But we haven't found them. Someone has probably seen us by now. Sunstreaker's paint job is like a beacon."

"Maybe it's 'cause they're looking for giant Robots, not humans." Jazz shrugged best he could with Prowl still leaning on him.

"How's he doing?" Ratchet nodded in Prowl's direction. His cheekbones and the bridge of his nose were beginning to turn a light red and he hadn't opened his eyes since he'd last closed them.

"Bout the same." Jazz looked at Prowl worriedly. "Why is his face turning a different color?"

"Yeah I was wondering about that too." Sideswipe smiled and Ratchet shot a pointed look at him.

"He's probably just getting a sunburn. Human's with lighter skin tones are more sensitive to the sun." Ratchet sighed and put his hands on his hips, looking up and down the road. "Jazz why don't you go and set him in some shade, Sunstreaker you take a break too."

"I'm fine Ratchet." Sunstreaker didn't move.

"Well I am not good so you're gonna sit down so I can actually stand up straight." Sideswipe put an end to Sunstreaker's argument and sat him down on the ground, a bit roughly. A string of cursing ensued and that's when Jazz heard it.

A stick snapped. "Shhhh!" he hissed at the twins, which only directed the cursing in his direction. "Ahm serious! Ah heard somethin." They quieted down reluctantly, looking around them.

Jazz hated not having all of his sensors. He could get at least three times more data with them than with what he had now. Humans were so... limited.

It happened again. It was subtle, only loud enough to hear when everything else was quiet. There were small snaps and the sound of shuffling feat, the *click* of plastic and metal against each other. He reached back to grab a blaster from his subspace only for him to come back with an empty hand.

"Ratchet, someo-" a round of shots went off. Ratchet and Red Alert ducked and coverd their heads. Sideswipe jumped in front of Sunstreaker, reaching back for a weapon but only grabbed air. Prowl's eyes snapped open at the loud sound and tried to get up but Jazz urged him down. It was dead silent again. The only sound was their hearts drumming in their ears.

"If you move we will shoot!" A familiar voice called.

"You already did that!" Sideswipe yelled back. There was a long pause.

"Put your hands up where we can see them!" They all looked at each other.

"Lennox?" Red Alert questioned, glancing at Jazz who nodded. He knew that voice sounded familiar.

"Lennox you son of glitch it's us!" Ratchet called in the direction the voice came from. A few moments passed and Lennox walked out of the brush in front of Ratchet. He stood there a moment, gun still raised. He looked all of them over slowly, shook his head and blinked a few times. Then did it again.

"What the hell happened you guys huh?" He put his gun down and laughed in disbelief.

"Wish I knew." Ratchet shook his head.

"Stand down guys. It's them."

oOo

The bots sat in the back of one of the transport vehicles. The back only had 10 seats. Lennox and three other soldiers were also in the back with them. Five seats were on each side of the truck, one side mirroring the other side.

One of the soldiers was a combat medic. He looked a bit like a deer in the headlights when Ratchet asked him to evaluate Prowl's condition. He agreed and sat across from Prowl and Jazz in the vehicle. He nervously, but professionally started asking Jazz what happened.

"Well, when we found 'im he was slumped against a tree so we assumed that's how he lost consciousness." Jazz explained.

"So he did get all the way knocked out then?" The medic asked in a soft, smoky voice, chewing on a finger of his glove. Jazz nodded. "Has he been slipping in and out of consciousness since he first woke up?"

"A little bit yeah. Sometimes we had to ask him the same questions a couple of times. It seemed Like he spaced out a little bit."

"He awake now?"

Jazz looked down at Prowl whose head was slumped against his shoulder. Prowl was defiantly awake, and doing his best to ignore it. He groaned quietly whenever someone talked a bit too loud or whenever they hit a bump in the road. "Yeah but Ah don't think he wants to be." Jazz told him.

The medic let a smile touch his lips. "I wouldn't want to be either." He stopped chewing on his glove and glanced at Ratchet and Jazz. "I'll have you try to keep him awake until I can get a CT scan or an MRI." Jazz gave him a confused look. Ratchet rose an eyebrow, more out of curiosity than confusion. "A CT-scan is like an X-ray except it uses a form of tomography where a computer controls the motion of the X-ray source and detectors, processes the data, and produces an image of whatever it's scanned. An MRI is when a machine uses a strong magnetic field and radio waves to create detailed images of organs and tissues in the body." The medic crossed his arms in front of himself when he finished and went back to chewing on his glove, watching Ratchet and Jazz.

One of the other soldiers snickered when Jazz still gave the medic a blank look. "No need to floor 'em like that Luka. Jesus..." Now it was his turn to look confused. "No need to show off." He added after a moment.

"I… I wasn't." The medic, Luka gave the soldier an odd look. "They looked confused about what I said, so I explained it."

"Would it kill you to dumb it down a bit?" The soldier grinned.

"Do you need a simpler version?" Luka glaced at Ratchet.

"Nope. You explained it very thoroughly." Ratchet gave a small smile to Luka, then a glare to the soldier who had laughed at him. Luka then shot a questioning look at Jazz who, after a moment, shook his head.

"Nah, I think Ah got the jist of it." Jazz smiled. Luka smiled smugly back, one that looked eerily similar to the soldier's, and leaned forward in his seat to see over Lennox, Sideswipe, and another soldier to look at him.

"So I think it's just you Leighton..." Leighton raised an eyebrow. "...who needs it dumbed down." Luka clarified. Sideswipe was the first to laugh, which was followed by various snickers throughout the cab. 'Leighton', crossed his arms and glared at Luka.

Ratchet smiled, looking from the two soldiers to Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. "Brothers?" He asked them.

"Twins actually." The soldier closest to Leighton corrected and elbowed him playfully.

"What gave it away?" Luka looked up at Ratchet curiously, then to his brother who still had a sour look on his face.

"Well, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker here are twins and…" he glanced at them with an amused smirk, "they act like that all the time."

"We do not." They denied in unison, causing a whole new round of snickers and laughs.

"Are the two of you _also_ notorious for your pranks?" Lennox asked.

"Oh they're terrible." Red Alert said flatly. "I have had to make a whole new list of security protocols for things that you shouldn't need security protocols for."

"Ok now I'm curious." Leighton uncrossed his arms, now paying full attention to Red Alert sitting across from him.

"They both have a restraining order and cannot come within 20 feet of Prowl's office." Leighton smirked and pointed a finger to the guy in riot cop armour.

"Prowl?" Red alert nodded. "What'd they do?"

"Well…" Sideswipe interjected, turning a bit in his seat, "We adjusted Prowl's seat so that it was too tall for him and attached an alarm to it, so when he adjusted it back down to his height…"

"It would go off and make him scream like a little girl." Leighton finished, grinning from ear to ear.

"Yeah, and then blast a hole through the wall." Sideswipe stated proudly.

"Nice!" Sideswipe grinned, and the two of them high fived. "We did that to Lennox once. Everyone thought some chick out of a horror movie got stabbed or something." Lennox's face slowly turned red.

"Oh Primus... There's two of them." Red Alert mumbled in pure horror, which made everyone crack up but Ratchet, who glared at the two pranksters.

"I swear to Primus if I have to repair someone because of you two…" Ratchet let it end there, Sideswipe automatically straightening and giving his best innocent grin.

"Me? Why Ratchet I would never." Ratchet almost reached back into his Subspace to grab his wrench, but remembered that wasn't working and settled with glaring. "And why just me? Sunstreaker helps you know."

"Because we all know that you come up with everything." Red Alert rolled his eyes.

"Ok that might be the case but Sunstreaker always helps."

"Well Sunstreaker won't be able to help for a while so as of right now i'm watching you." Ratchet pointed to the two of them and Leighton raised his hands in the, 'im unarmed' gesture.

"Why's that?" Ratchet looked at Luka.

"Well I think it's obvious, they clearly can't be left alone togethe-"

"I mean Sunstreaker." Luka interrupted before Ratchet went off on too much of a tangent. "Why won't he be helping out for a while?"There was a pause, and a long sigh from Ratchet.

"He hurt his knee and I'm not sure what's wrong with it. I was going to ask you to look at it once we got back to base."

"We actually don't have any CT or MRI machines on base so we're going to have to stop by a hospital for your friend here." He waved a hand at Prowl who had since resorted to resting his elbows on his knees and holding his head in his hands. Luka pursed his lips, thinking, and grabbed his radio. _"Jed, pull over for a second." _The other soldiers and the bots gave him an odd look while he tapped a finger on the radio, waiting for a response.

_"Something wrong?"_ came Jed's static laiden voice.

_"No I just need something outta my bag."_ A few moments passed and everyone rocked a bit in their seats as the large truck pulled over. Someone opened the door and Luka, being closest to the door jumped out and disappeared from sight. A few minutes passed and Luka jumped back into the truck and someone slammed the metal door closed. A sharp sound rang through the back of the truck. On most days it was annoying, but to someone with a pretty good concussion, it was worthy of a flinch and a groan.

"Sorry about that." Luka spoke quietly, tapping Prowl's shoulder, "Jed is not always the most… courteous." Prowl tilted his head up slowly to see a water bottle being held out to him. "Drink some of this."

Prowl sat up and leaned back in his chair, unable to hold himself up without toppling over. Luka unscrewed the cap and handed it to Prowl, who took it carefully. His hand wasn't quite going in the direction he was telling it to and Jazz noticed.

Jazz grabbed the bottle out of Prowl's hand. "Ere," He held it up to Prowl's lips and tilted it back, only taking it away after about a quarter of it was empty.

Luka rummaged through a pile of stuff on his lap. "Creed how much do you weigh?" He asked, reading something on the back of a pink bottle.

"What?"

"How much do you weigh?" Luka repeated.

"No I heard you…" Creed, the soldier next to Leighton, grinned amusedly at Luka's idea that he hadn't heard him, not that the question was odd.

"I need to know how much Tylenol to give Prowl and you're about his size." Luka stated simply.

"So why don't you ask him?" Luka looked up from the label on the bottle.

"Because, earlier today he was a 20 ft robot who weighed as much as a car. And then he magically turned human." He deadpanned, Sideswipe unable to contain a snicker. "Would you know exactly how much you weighed if right now, you were magically transformed into a robot?"

"I'd say about as much as a car." Creed laughed, Sideswipe along with him.

"Well unfortunately, 'car'," he tapped the bottle with his finger, "...is not an option on here, and neither is shrunken car, so how much do you weigh?"

"165."

"Thank you." Luka unscrewed the cap and began pouring the pink liquid into a small clear cup.

"Doesn't Aspirin work better?" Leighton asked.

"If you want possible bleeding problems in the brain then sure." He handed the small cup to Jazz who helped Prowl drink it. "He'll need one more."

"Pfft, It does not cause bleeding problems in the brain." Leighton rolled his eyes and Creed gave him a skeptical look.

"It does when you have a concussion." Luka's words were quiet and clipped. He handed Jazz the second cup for Prowl. _"Jed, detour to the nearest hospital."_ he spoke into the radio again, his voice was no longer the quiet suggestive tone it was earlier when he _asked_ Jed to pull over.

_"Something up?"__"No one's dying but I think it would be best if we got them to a hospital sooner rather than later."__"Alright."_

He then looked to Sunstreaker who sat between Ratchet and Red Alert. "Where does your leg hurt?" A majority of the heads turned in his direction. Sunstreaker hadn't actually said anything since they'd got in the truck.

"My knee." He answered simply, but Sideswipe didn't miss how his jaw tightened as soon as he shut it.

"On a scale of one to ten… ten being the worst pain you've ever felt, one being the least, how bad?" Sunstreaker looked down a moment.

"Eight." There was a pause. Sideswipe knew it was bad but he didn't think that bad.

"Can he use this?" Luca pointed to the now half empty water bottle that Jazz held. He nodded and passed it to Ratchet, who passed it to Sunstreaker. "Take these…" Luca passed two red pills down to him, "Don't chew them just swallow them with the water."

"What are they for?" Sunstreaker stared at the two red dots in his hand.

"They're pain killers." Luka took a small package off the stack of things he brought in from his bag and repeatedly squeezed it with his hands, the package making weird crunching noises. "Hey, Prowl…" he said quietly, ducking his head down so he wouldn't have to be loud. Prowl groaned in acknowledgement. "I need you to open your eyes and look at me a minute." Prowl brought his head up again and tried opening his eyes but immediately closing them with a grimace on his face. "Prowl I know it's difficult but I need you to keep them open just a bit longer." Prowl groaned quietly but opened his eyes again. The sound with the bag stopped as Luka took every second to observe Prowl's eyes before he closed them again.

"What're you doing?" Sideswipe asked, his curiosity getting the better of him. Luca didn't answer but grabbed Prowl's wrist gently when he closed his eyes again.

"Put this on where it hurts but take it off if it makes it worse." He handed Prowl the package.

"What's that?" Sideswipe asked.

"Ice-pack." Luca answered quickly. "Does the light make your head hurt?" Prowl nodded slowly. "Do you feel numb anywhere?" A moment passed and he lightly shook his head 'no'.

"Does it bother you when I talk like this?" Luca slowly raised his voice, Prowl just short of cringing, nodded. "Has the pain been getting worse or is it the same?"

"Worse." Prowl answered, his usual clear and modulated words now coming out in brittle mumbles.

_"How close is the hospital Jed?" _

_"About 20 minutes."_

_"Make it 10."_ He looked around the cabin. "If you don't have your seatbelt on I'd put it on now." A worried look swept over everyone's faces as the few who didn't buckle up did so.

"What's the damage?" Ratchet asked, glancing between Luka and Prowl.

"Prowl has a stage 4 concussion since he likely was knocked out for more than a minute," he started, not really looking at anyone, "One pupil is larger than the other which is almost a sure sign of structural damage. He's sensitive to light, sound, and his headache has been getting worse. He said he doesn't feel numb anywhere which is a good sign that no important nerves haven't been damaged." Everyone looked at each other.

"What's the worse case scenario here?" Jazz asked, unable to keep the worry out of his voice. All eyes were on Luka, who tilted his head to the side. Thinking.

"We won't know the extent of the damage until we get the scans. So I'm not sure."

"We all know that you have a pretty close guess." Lennox urged him on. Luka stopped chewing on his glove and looked Prowl up and down.

"Well…" He glanced at all of them, everyone, unitentionally doubling their anxiousness. "Absolute worse case he may need a Craniotomy to reduce swelling... which would be followed by a two week hospital stay and at least a month of physical therapy. I have no idea how much structural damage he has but there's a good chance that once the swelling goes down he'll need that repaired too. It may be minor or major I have no idea. Best case, he has only minor structural damage that doesn't require surgery, no swelling, and we could have him out in the next day or so." No one said anything. "Sunstreaker do you remember hearing a loud popping noise?" Sunstreaker gave a bemused look. "When you hurt your knee."

"Oh…" he mumbled, a little confused at the quick change of subject. "I don't remember."

"Are you able to stand on it without it hurting or giving way?" He shook his head. "Was it swollen or bruised when you looked at it?" Luka asked Ratchet.

"Yeah, it started turning purple too." he nodded.

"Ok so when we get there Ratchet and Lennox you go with Sunstreaker. He tore his ACL but we'll need an x-ray to confirm that. Jazz you help me with Prowl and we'll go and get him checked out."

Everyone could feel the lurch when the truck stopped. The door opened and Luka and Jazz started on helping Prowl out of the back. There wasn't much room for anyone to say anything else since several doctors swarmed them and started asking questions.

Sunstreaker noticed something about Luka that he just… couldn't put a finger on. The way his whole demeanor changed in the snap of a finger. He'd have to think about that later because right now, several doctors were giving the group weird looks and asking questions about what happened. "LARP-ing accident." was Leighton's casual explanation when a nurse was eyeing his bright armour suspiciously.


	3. Why I Hate Hospitals (Just wait)

**Heyo! So here's chapter 3... I'm planning on adding a big twist in either the next chapter or the one after that... enjoy and Happy Easter!**Sunstreaker found himself being led into the hospital, one arm around Sideswipe and another around Ratchet, Red Alert walking next to him. Luka was ahead of them with several doctors, helping Jazz and Prowl along before they all took a left, Lennox leading their group in a different direction.

They rounded another corner and a doctor in a blue smok gave them all an odd look from behind the _oh so steril_ counter. "We think he tore his ACL," Lennox told the woman behind the desk. She sighed and pushed her glasses up before grabbing a clipboard.

"Name?" Sunstreaker opened his mouth to answer but Lennox quickly did so for him.

"Sonny… Sonny Jones." The woman behind the desk gave Lennox an odd look before getting up and gesturing for the group to follow her. She walked into a large open area with several seats and had them all sit down.

"The doctor will be with you in a minute." She left and went back to her desk behind the counter, scribbling on the clipboard the whole way.

"So do we just sit here then?" Sideswipe asked after literally a _minute_ of sitting still. There wasn't anyone else in the waiting room at the moment, so he didn't bother being quiet.

"Yes Sideswipe." Ratchet groaned. Lennox nodded, and a few more moments of silence followed.

"Do you think Prowl will be ok?"

Lennox shifted in his seat, rubbing his eyes. Today had been a long and confusing day for everyone, and Lennox was just beginning to show it. He looked at the two brothers, Sunstreaker also waiting for an answer even though he didn't ask. "I'm hoping so you guys." Sideswipe looked at the ground.

"Its looks like Luka knows what he's doing. Best case we'll have him out by tomorrow." Ratchet told them without his usual gruff tone. Sunstreaker nodded before casually looking around the room. There was some of what he assumed was supposed to be, "art" up on the walls. In his opinion, the three canvases that hung next to each other with one continuous stripe on them looked rather… boring.

"Hey where'd Leighton go?" Sunstreaker asked after a moment, noticing the human twin wasn't with them. He'd walked in with them but he wasn't seated anywhere in the empty waiting room.

"Right behind you." It took all of Sunstreaker self control not to jump at the voice coming from above him. He growled and looked up to see Leighton hovering over him with a stupid grin on his face.

"Where'd ya go?" Sideswipe smirked at his brother, shamelessly finding joy in his discomfort.

"Well I don't know about you but I was starving, so I helped myself to the… uh, food-room."

"The, 'food room'?" Red Alert squinted at him.

"The lobby...cafeteria! The cafeteria," he corrected himself, "I couldn't remember the word." Leighton sat down a chair away from Sideswipe, and laughed quietly to himself. "Food-room…" he mumbled, before reaching into an orange and blue bag and putting something into his mouth.

"What's that?" Sunstreaker pointed to the wrinkly package.

"Cheetos." Leighton answered with his mouth full, "Want one?" Sunstreaker looked at the package warily. "C'mon. You're human now so you gotta start eating human food." Leighton handed what looked like an orange stick to Sunstreaker, before offering one to everybody.

Once everyone had some cheetos, Sideswipe was the first to take a bite. "Woaah, this is good." he smiled before shoving a few more into his mouth. Red Alert took a bite, found that it was safe, and continued. Sunstreaker and Ratchet awkwardly tried theirs, soon mirroring Sideswipe. "So this is what humans eat?" Red Alert asked in all seriousness. He knew humans needed water and that they often also ate plants and smaller organisms but he never did get the details.

"What? No. Well…" Leighton laughed, much to Red Alert's confusion. "Yes we eat this, but it's not all we eat."

"I never thought I taste anything other than energon…" Sideswipe said dreamily, licking one of his orange fingers.

"You guys only have energon? Thats it?" Leighton looked appalled at the idea.

"Energon basically takes care of everything so we don't need anything else." Ratchet told him.

"Huh, weird." Leighton ate another Cheeto. "Well I'm going to introduce you to a bunch of new stuff because you guys have been missing out. Just wait until I show you Oreos."

oOo

Jazz helped Prowl lay down on the bed of the MRI machine. Luka told him that Prowl couldn't have any metal on him when he went through the machine, so he had helped Jazz get him out of his armour. Which. Was. A. Chore. Lemme tell ya. Everytime Jazz thought there was no more buckles... boom! 'Anotha one', as said by Khalid.

Prowl looked… surprisingly smaller without it. It was odd that he didn't have his doorwings either, probably contributing to why he looked like he did.

Prowl now had on a white t-shirt and black cargo pants, black combat boots still on his feet. One of the doctors gently lifted his head and put a weird contraption around it, strapping him in place. "Pryce you need to stay completely still ok?" One of the doctors told Prowl using the name that Luka had given them. Prowl blinked a few times, unable to nod.

"Ok." The two doctors stepped out of the room, waving for Luka and Jazz to follow them. They went into a closet like space with a large window in it. Through it Jazz and Luka could see the room they were previously in. A bunch of computers clicked and whirred as one of the doctors started the odd machine.

The slab that Prowl was laying on went back into the donut-shaped object, a green line running up and down his body. A cloudy series of black and white images appeared on the computers in the small room. Jazz squinted at the images. They were black with two clusters of seemingly random white squiggles and lines. He concluded quickly that he had no idea what he was looking at.

The doctors powered off the machine and the slab came out of the donut. They unstrapped Prowl from the table and Jazz helped him up. "Everything looks good so far but we're going to need to review the images further." One of the doctors told the three of them, pushing her black glasses back onto the bridge of her nose. "Until then we'll get you guys a room so Pryce here can lay down." Prowl gave her a confused look but Jazz squeezed his shoulder.

"C'mon Prowler," he whispered in his ear as they walked out of the x-ray wing, "Let's get ya somewhere to lay down."

They walked down the stark white hallway and took a couple of turns before they walked into a large waiting area. "Over here," Jazz's head turned to see Sideswipe waving them over.

"How do you feel Prowl?" Ratchet asked once Jazz set Prowl down in the chair across from him. Prowl didn't even try to look in the direction the voice came from and went back to the position he was in the truck, elbows on his knees and head in his hands. "Light hurts, sound hurts, everything just… hurts." Prowl ground out, obviously annoyed at his current situation.

Everyone glanced at Prowl worriedly. Prowl was usually stoic, every movement and word planned out and measured. Something was obviously off with Prowl when he wasn't so, 'uptight'.

"The doctors said they wanted 'ta look over his scans more. Luka…" Jazz trailed off. "Where's Luka?" He was sure he had walked in with them.

"Do both of you do that?" Red Alert asked Leighton, much to Jazz's confusion.

"Do what?" Leighton asked with faked innocence, taking another handful of crunchy Cheetos. A big grin spread across everyone's faces. "Wha-" Leighton turned to see what everyone else was obviously staring at, only to find Luka's face just inches from his own.

"Boo."

Leighton was up and out of his seat in the blink of an eye, an oh so manly yelp escaping him. "Ya know ya didn't have 'ta do an impression of what Lennox sounded like right?" Jazz teased, Lennox and Leighton's faces both turning a bit red from the comment.

"They told me room 231 for Prowl. It's upstairs. I'll show you where it is." Luka informed Jazz, who coaxed an unhappy Prowl out of his chair.

"Sonny Jones?" An unfamiliar voice called and all heads turned to see a dark skinned woman in a white doctors coat. The "L" twins and Jazz exchanged confused looks, not being in the loop.

"He's right here," Ratchet got up, intent on helping Sunstreaker. His brother did the same.

"Follow me please." She said, opening a door a couple of paces away from where they were seated.

"Let's all meet up in the cafeteria?" Lennox suggested.

"Sounds good." Leighton mumbled through a mouthful of Cheetos and got up to follow Jazz, Prowl, and Luka.

"Go with them." Leighton gave Luka a questioning look. "You're loud. Prowl doesn't like loud things right now." Leighton rolled his eyes and changed his course to follow the others.

oOo

One elavator ride later they were on the second floor and in room 231. Luka had left a moment or two ago, mumbling something about a water bottle.

Once Prowl had laid down and all of his armour was in the room did Jazz think about leaving.

Jazz had taken off some of his armour as well, noticing how he heated up in it after a while. He set the blue and white armoured vest on the ground before he decided to take his helm off also. He was a little freaked out when he did so. Reason number one, helms only come off for medical reasons such as surgery on cranial circuits or processors. Two because he had odd hair underneath. It was black and was wrapped in rope like cords that touched his shoulders. Jazz shook his head and set the dark helmet down next to Prowl's on the window sill.

He glanced over at Prowl. He had rolled over onto his side and had an arm hanging over the side of the bed. Jazz laughed quietly and walked over to the bed, gently putting Prowl's arm back on it before running his fingers through his ashy blond hair. It didn't really have a part in it and was mostly pushed back, stray bangs on his forehead. Prowl didn't stir at his touch, finally asleep. Jazz assumed the medicine Luka had given him was finally kicking in. Jazz noticed he still had his boots on and decided to take those off.

Prowl twitched slightly when he slid the first one off, making Jazz still for a moment before untying the other one. Once he was done he glanced at Prowl's face once more. His usually guarded expression was gone, leaving Prowl looking surprisingly… different. Although he was now human, Prowl's noble features were the same. His high cheekbones and refined nose were now slightly tinted red. Right now in Prowl's relaxed state Jazz thought Prowl looked... delicate. _Breakable_. Jazz suddenly felt a surge of protectiveness rush over him. Nothing would hurt Prowl, ever. He'd make sure of that.

Jazz heard shuffling at the door and turned to see Luka standing in the doorway, a look Jazz couldn't quite place written all over his face. Was it, sadness? No it looked too happy for that. Jazz dismissed it and carefully put a light blanket over Prowl before heading for the door. Luka stepped out and Jazz closed the door quietly. Luka gave him a funny look again, and Jazz decided to acknowledge it.

"What?" He asked simply and Luka smiled.

"You really love him don't you?" The question caught Jazz off guard. Just how much had Luka seen?

He opened his mouth to protest but Luka gave him a knowing look. Jazz looked away and sighed. "How'd ya know?"

"I'm not blind Jazz," Luka smiled again, "No one else is either."

"Ya mean-"

"Yeah. They all know. It's kind of obvious."

"Obvious to everyone _except_ Prowl." Jazz rolled his eyes and Luka let out a light laugh. "Prowl isn't exactly good with relationships. Sometimes Ah wonder if he knows that Ah care 'bout 'im like... well, like _that_." Jazz rubbed the back of his neck. He glanced at Luka who was looking at the ground in front of them as they walked, a small smile on his face.

"Just give him a little time." Luka pressed the button to open the elavator, and walked inside. A few moments passed and he looked Jazz in the eyes. "You never know, maybe he loves you back and just doesn't know how to say it." Jazz and Luka stepped out of the elavator when the *ding* sound went off.

That made sense. Prowl was formal with almost everything, friendships even. That is until Jazz had bugged him enough. It turned out that 'antisocial and guarded' was just Prowl's default until he got comfortable around you. Many mechs misunderstood that and assumed that Prowl simply had the emotions of a drone. But Jazz had seen another side of Prowl that he didn't let out often, and he knew that wasn't true. So what Luka said made sense. Prowl was a little different, so it seemed to fit that his, 'I love you' would be different too.

Luka went through a pair of double doors and Jazz followed him into the cafeteria. It took him a minute to spot the gang, but he eventually found them. Everyone had taken off their armour and it was nowhere to be seen. Ratchet had his jumpsuit unzipped and the arms tied around his waist. He didn't have his helm on, so his white and red braid was out for the world to see. Sunny and Sides each had on yellow and red shirts and black pants. Red Alert hadn't changed much, just had his helm on the table next to him, brown helmet hair standing up in some places.

"I can see we had the same idea," Jazz gestured to his lack of armour.

"Lennox told us people would stop looking at us weird if we put it in the truck." Sideswipe informed him, stuffing some sort of yellow… is that shells into his mouth?

"It's called Shells 'N Cheese Jazz." Sunstreaker said smugly, noticing Jazz's expression.

"What's that?" Jazz asked him, noticing the metal contraption on his leg.

"It's a brace. Apparently if I wear it long enough it will fix my leg."

"So you did end up tearing your ACL then?" Luka asked, joining the group at the table.

"Pretty fragging close." Ratchet answered in between bites of food. From the looks of it the medic got himself a cheeseburger. "He sprained it pretty good so he's gonna have to wear that for a few weeks." Luka looked a bit disappointed.

"Sorry." He said, just barely audible.

"Why are you sorry?" Sunstreaker asked, and stopped eating.

"Its just…" Luka went back to chewing on his glove. A nervous tick, Sunstreaker noticed. "I'm usually right. I didn't mean to worry you unnecessarily." Ratchet set his burger down and turned in his chair.

"Look kid, you're good. Really good. We all make mistakes sometimes. Slag I make mistakes sometimes, but I want you to remember something," Luka looked up at him. "It's always better to overestimate a problem than to underestimate it." Luka nodded. "Now go on and refuel with Jazz, you both look terrible." The bots smiled when Luka gave Ratchet a confused look.

"He means food. Eat some food." Lennox explained. "Go on." He waved Luka and Jazz towards the line. "It's been a long day for everyone."

**AN:****Chapter updated 4/21/19**

**(I'm gonna start dating these so you know that I am in fact, not dead)**

**Whoop whoop third chapter down praise the Lawd Jeezes. Sorry this update took forever, Mah bad. Big thank you to those of you who have read this far, good on u guys**. **Be sure to share your thoughts on this chapter or ideas for future ones! It helps me figure out where to go next and keeps me motivated :) until we meet again… sometime next week...**


	4. Honey, I Shrunk the Kids

**An: *awkwardly waves* Hey...**

**This chapter is SUPER late and I apologize, but I actually have a good reason! I typed out most of this chapter right... but then my dumb arse forgot to save a large portion so, I had to retype it ._. It was painful. Anyways, here's the next chapter, with the beginning of the twist I was hinting at earlier. Enjoy!**

Prowl woke up slowly. First thing he noticed was he had the mother of all headaches. Second, he was _not_ in his quarters.

The floor was made up of white marble tiles, and the walls were a steril eggshell color. From where Prowl lay he could see a wooden door with a window in it, artificial light coming through. He turned slightly and noticed several machines beeping and whirring next to him, but none were connected to him._ I'm in a hospital_, he concluded. _Why am I in a hospital?_

Prowl squinted. Even looking at bright things made his head hurt. Why did his head hurt? Prowl ran through what he remembered from yesterday. They went on a mission yesterday… to further inspect a Decepticon signal. Then… _oh no._

Prowl sat up, his head throbbing as he did so, but not as bad as yesterday. He swung his legs over the side of the bed to stand up. When his socked feet touched the cold floor he noticed he didn't have any shoes on. Prowl looked around and found them next to a chair. In the chair though, sat someone with dark skin and hair. Their arms crossed over their chest and legs kicked out in front of them, head slumped forward, sleeping.

_Jazz._

Prowl tried to remember more of what happened yesterday. They went to find a Decepticon signal… And were in the middle of the forest. He'd been a little farther away from the others, branching off a bit for the source of the signal. Then…

Prowl looked back over at Jazz. Then… he didn't remember. He remembered Ratchet talking to him. Getting in a vehicle and someone else asking him questions during the drive. Jazz and that same person, had him lay down on something and now, he was here. Prowl frowned. His memory was never this patchy.

Prowl reached up and felt the back of his head. Soft hair ran through his fingers, which quickly pulled away when they found a sore spot. So he hit his head. That explains the patchy memory and the headache.

Prowl stood up, the hospital bed creaking as he did so. Jazz's indigo eyes opened lazily. Prowl's intention was to go and quietly grab his boots without waking Jazz up. Probably not the best idea. Jazz was a saboteur after all, so Prowl did expect him to wake up. One thing he didn't expect though, was for his vision to go dark.

One moment he was standing, taking a step in the direction of the chair. The next, Jazz was up and next to him, his arms the only thing keeping him from toppling over.

"...owl? Prowl!" Prowl's hearing was the first thing to come back. Then, slowly, the world materialized around him again. The darkness retreated back to the edges of his vision before disappearing altogether, a sick feeling in his gut disappearing with it. He blinked a few times before turning to Jazz.

"What… what happened?" He asked, honestly confused. Jazz gave him a worried smile.

"Well Prowl one moment you were walkin' then ya stopped and started ta fall forward. Like ya stalled or somethin." Jazz released his grip slightly. "You ok now?"

Prowl nodded slowly and straightened. "Yes, I think so." Jazz let him go but didn't move more than a foot away. "What time is it?" He noticed that humans didn't have internal chronometers.

"Its uh…" Jazz glanced around for a clock, "it's about six o'clock." _Six o'clock? That would mean…_

"A.M. or P.M.?"

"A.M.?" Jazz answered, a bit confused as to the look on Prowl's face.

"That would mean that we missed check in with Optimus." Prowl stated. "Does he-"

"Red Alert already checked in with him." Jazz interrupted. "The others went back to base. The doc, not our doc said that they needed to review your scans more so you had to stay here."

"Scans?" Prowl squinted. They did scans on him?

"Yeah Prowl… they did some scans because you gotta concussion yesterday."

"A, concussion?" Prowl questioned.

"How much do you remember? From yesterday?" Jazz wrinkled his brow. He assumed Prowl would know what went on yesterday. He'd seemed lucid enough.

"Well…" Prowl thought back, "...all of us at base went to investigate a Decepticon signal. We were all looking around, and…" Jazz nodded, encouraging him to go on. "Then I was talking to Ratchet and he told me to sit down. Then I was sitting with you in a transport vehicle and… someone gave me something... Then you and someone else had me lay down on something and now… well now we're here."

Jazz frowned slightly. Apparently not that lucid then. "You don't remember anythin else?" Prowl shook his head. "Here, sit down." Jazz directed him to the chair he was previously sitting in. "Put these on," Jazz put Prowl's boots next to him, "I'll fill ya in while we get something to eat." Prowl nodded and set to tying his shoes.

Once he was finished Prowl stood up again. Without warning black spots appeared in the middle of his vision, quickly spreading outwards. "Jazz," his voice came out as a quiet whisper. The sickening feeling in his stomach came back and he tried to put an arm out to catch himself, but he didnt know whether or not the appendage responded.

When his vision came back and his eyes focused again he was in a similar position he was in earlier. He was still upright, but Jazz had a hand on his chest and an arm around his waist.

"It happen again?" Jazz asked him and he nodded. "Just, don't get up so fast ok?" Jazz reached up and squeezed his shoulder. Prowl nodded and Jazz let go of him, not even close to a foot away now. "Stay close. I'll make sure you don't go falling over." Jazz led Prowl by the arm towards the door. "Now let's go and get some food cuz ahm starvin."

oOo

-back at base-

Ratchet stood in front of the computer, his face staring back at him from the computer's camera. Red Alert was next to him, running several layers of encryption before they even made the call to Optimus. They couldn't afford for Soundwave to intercept the message and learn of their current... situation.

"Ok, you're good to go Ratchet." Red Alert clicked a few more buttons and the camera switched to a loading sign. "Now we just need to wait for Prime to pick up."

Ratchet shifted in front of the camera. How would Optimus react to this? All of them were pretty freaked out themselves when they first figured this out. Sunstreaker had started at his flesh hand for a good five minutes while Ratchet had checked out his leg.

The loading sign went away, and the black screen turned into a video feed, similar to the one they had on the larger computer. For obvious reasons, Ratchet couldn't use that one to communicate with Optimus, so he had to use the MAC that Lennox lent to him.

Optimus stepped into the view of the camera, his optics brightening slightly when they landed on Ratchet.

Optimus was expecting to talk to Ratchet, not a human. "Is, Ratchet there?" He asked, and the human smiled.

"He is Optimus." That voice was unmistakable. Optimus's optics brightened even more.

"Ratchet?" He asked disbelievingly. Ratchet nodded. "How-"

"It's a long story Optimus." Ratchet shifted on his feet again.

Optimus looked behind him, then back to the computer console. "I have time." Ratchet nodded and couldn't help a small smile. Optimus should've seen his face.

"So we went to check up on a Decepticon signal…"

oOo

Luka and Sunstreaker were eating breakfast in the mess hall. The human sized one. Some soldiers were completely weirded out by the autobot's newly acquired forms, others were fascinated. There was no in between. Most of this curiosity resulted in stares and whispers, but none dared approach Sunstreaker, and he was glad for it.

Sunstreaker was never one to be a, 'social butterfly', as that was more of Sideswipe's thing. He hated the attention. Having to create meaningless small talk simply because the silence was awkward. The questions. He was always awkward or ignored, so he had given up on trying to fight his introverted nature a long time ago. He didn't mind being around his brother, or a few certain mechs for that matter but… 3 is a group, four is a crowd. That's one of the things Sunstreaker liked about his twin, he was always talking. When Sunstreaker was with him he didn't have to talk often to keep things from being awkward, Sideswipe simply took care of that. This was probably one of the main reasons they were always together.

Sunstreaker noticed something similar about the human twins. Luka was more reserved, in both speaking and actions. His voice was quieter and he didn't jump around as much as Leighton did. Sunstreaker was loud, but of few words so many mistook him for being 'the quiet one'. That is until they saw him on the battlefield. He was probably the most obnoxious one out there.

Sunstreaker and Luka had probably said about 5 words total to the other since, well this morning. Luka knocked on his door, asked him if he wanted to get breakfast with him, Sunstreaker answered sure and off they went.

Sunstreaker would've went with his brother but he wasn't in the room when he woke up, which was odd. Sunstreaker always got up first. He wouldn't admit it outloud but he hated not being around his twin now more than ever. Ratchet had told him that human twins didn't have spark bonds, or anything similar to that at all. It bothered Sunstreaker to not feel his brother's presence in his spark. Usually that meant that he was dead, but he knew that wasn't the case.

"So is it true that human twins don't have bonds?" Sunstreaker asked aloud. He trusted Ratchet no doubt about that, but he had to ask.

Luka was about to put a spoon full of Cheerios into his mouth when he stopped, his brows knitting together. He set the spoon back in the bowl and looked at Sunstreaker. "We have a bond like, we're brothers… friends I guess if that's what you mean…" Luka answered, confused by the question. Sunstreaker shook his head.

"I mean… like a bond. Can you feel each other's emotions or, presence?"

Luka raised a dark eyebrow. "Do you?"

"Not since being human."

"I can't imagine that." Luka visibly cringed. Sunstreaker narrowed his eyes at Luka. "It's just… having someone else in your head, knowing everything you know… It just seems really, invasive."

Sunstreaker had never thought of it that way. Honestly he didn't know any different. Him and Sideswipe had a bond since the beginning. He'd never been truly alone in his head until yesterday. So far he hated it. Usually if something was wrong, the other knew without having to ask, and he found comfort in that.

The double doors swung open behind Luka, and Leighton strode in, Sideswipe behind him. Sunstreaker noticed as the two walked towards their table, just how much taller Leighton was than Luka. Yet, despite Leighton's long legged strides up to their table, when he plopped down next to Luka, they were level with each other.

Sideswipe was behind Luka, but something was off. He was moving, but his legs weren't. They were stick straight, one slightly in front of the other as he glided across the floor to their table. Sunstreaker noticed that his shoes were no longer black boots, but rather orange sneakers.

"Why hello Sunny." Sideswipe grinned, coming to a stop in front of him.

"It's Sunstreaker." Sunstreaker took a moment to scowl before directing his attention to his brother's newly acquired shoes.

"They're called HEELYS." Sideswipe said, lifting one shoe off the ground to show a wheel attached to the bottom. That explains the sudden ability to glide.

"I wonder where he got those." Luka looked accusingly at his brother, who shrugged and grinned sheepishly.

"What? He liked em." Luka rolled his eyes and ate another bite of cereal.

"Be right back." Sideswipe said, before rolling away towards the short breakfast line. Sunstreaker couldn't help but chuckle. Sideswipe looked ridiculous.

oOo

After breakfast with the autobot twins, which actually weren't bad company, Leighton headed off towards the gym room. He was off duty for the rest of the day as far as he knew, so he thought he'd might as well give the old punching bag a run for it's money while he had the chance. On the way there, he came across the bathroom and decided he needed a quick pit stop.

He walked in to find that Creed was also there. He didn't say hi because… well that's just too many kinds of awkward. One does not simply say, 'hi' to another man while they're doing their thing. Leighton settled for a simple nod instead, and proceeded to do his business.

Once he was finished he turned to go to the sink, only to find Creed standing a little too close to him. "Sorry…" he mumbled, and tried to redirect his course. This time though, Creed grabbed his arm tightly. Leighton knew that Creed was a pretty physical person, throwing an arm over whoever's shoulders when he got the chance. Right now though, they were in the bathroom, so this was weird. Leighton's mind ran through possibilities of what could happen next, and he did not like any of them.

Leighton tried to shake his arm loose, but Creed's grip was like iron. Creed was in no way tall, unlike Leighton, but he was sturdy as hell. Not gonna lie, he probably had a bruise where he held his arm. "Creed let go. Now." Leighton said evenly. A sneer spread across Creed's rugged features, his eyes focusing on something behind him. Leighton instinctively tried to turn around, but couldn't do so completely because of Creed's hold on him.

Behind him, two men Leighton had never seen before rushed him. He suddenly felt a flare of pain in his jaw when Creed's first made contact with it. In his confusion, the two men grabbed Leighton's arms and held them tightly.

Creed pulled a vile out of his jacket pocket, and flicked it a few times, smiling when a few drops of the clear liquid dripped out of the needle. "I apologize for this Leighton…" Creed reached forward with the vile. Leighton struggled against the holds on his arms, but they didn't' budge. He tried kicking and Creed stopped short when one of Leighton's large boot's hit home. Creed's eye twitched and he actually growled.

Leighton barely had time to process the boot coming towards his face until it was too late. At first he didn't feel anything. Then pins and needles, then a throbbing feeling started at the point of contact on his cheekbone. His vision slowly cleared, and Creed was above him, a toothy smile spread across his wolf-like features.

"You know, I take that back." Creed bent down and plunged the syringe into Leighton's neck, none too gently. "I have a large and screechy client at the moment who needs a certain tactician, that conveniently we happen to have." Creed pulled the syringe out and stowed it away in his pocket. "We needed someone unassuming to lure him away from the crowd. So I thought, what better person to choose than your brother."

My brother? Why would he think that Luka would help him hand Prowl over to a Decepticon… judging by the description. "Luka will never help you…" Leighton's words came out sluggish, and slurred, a warm feeling slowly spreading over him.

Creed laughed. An actual, belly-roll type laugh. It kind of creeped Leighton out. Why would Creed think this is funny?

"Whoo…" Creed wiped a tear from the corner of his eye, still trying to suppress his laughter, "Leighton… buddy. I knew you were the dumb one but come on dude."

That stung, and with that feeling anger came with it. Leighton had genuinely thought Creed a friend. So this whole thing seemed to come out of nowhere. Also, Creed had never compared him to his brother. Not once. Just what was he missing out on here?

"Think dummy." Creed tapped Leighton's forehead. "I knew very well that your brother would never help us with something like this. At least not willingly…" he shook his head, "That's why we have you."

Another wolfish grin crawled across Creed's face when Leighton's eyes widened. They were going to use him to convince Luka to help them. Would Luka do it? Maybe… Leighton wasn't sure. I mean, he cared for his brother ad much as the next guy… but to be honest, they kind of had a love-hate relationship.

Leighton's eyelids felt Like they each weighed a hundred pounds. "Night night." Creed waved when they finally slid shut, the tingly warm feeling completely consuming him. His last thought was how Luka would react when he found out…

oOo

Ratchet clicked the computer off, the screen turning black. Optimus had been… surprised, to say the least. He had offered to send Perceptor or Wheeljack to help them figure out how to solve their current… predicament. Ratched had refused.

The autobots didn't have a space bridge. Even if they did, one would consume an unholy amount of energon that in all honesty, didn't have. Another option was for one of the scientists to be transported by Skyfire. This option was better, but as much as Ratchet wanted to see Wheeljack, and figure out their current problem, Skyfire was irreplaceable when it came to transporting troops. Especially soldiers without transportation alt-modes. So, Ratchet put his selfish needs aside, and declined the offer.

The conversation to be had about how they miraculously became human, would probably be one best had with Prowl. Depending on how he is feeling of course. Ratchet wanted to get to the bottom of this, but he also wanted to see how Prowl was doing. Although, Prowl had been the main disciplinarian for the twins, he knew that they were worried about him too.

"Red Alert," Ratchet put his hands on his hips and turned towards him, "I am going to go and see how Prowl is doing, and possibly discuss our current problem with him if he's able to. You want to come along?"

Red Alert didn't even look up from the computer console he was staring at. Rows and Rows of code flew across the screen that Ratchet couldn't hope to understand. "I think It would be best if I stayed here." Red Alert answered, typing something into the keyboard. "I missed a lot from yesterday and I think it would be best if I got caught up."

Ratchet smiled to himself. "Alright. I'm gonna go and ask if any of the others want to go, then we'll be off." Ratchet turned, intending to leave but Red Alert swiftly grabbed Ratchet's wrist before he could do so.

Ratchet turned and Red Alert let go of his arm. "If Prowl is feeling up to it, the sooner we can get him back to base, the better." Good ol' Red Alert. Ratchet was in no way paranoid, but it would make him feel better to have Prowl and Jazz back with the group, especially in their current state.

"I agree." Ratchet nodded and left the room in search of both sets of twins. Ratchet had noticed how similar, yet different the two sets were. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe had almost opposite demeanors, but their personalities were similar. They found humour in most of the same things, and we're almost inseparable. The human twins on the other hand…

They were different. Leighton was more like Sideswipe sure, usually loud and incapable of staying still. Then there was Luka. He was more reserved, similar to Sunstreaker, and seemed to have a sense of humour. Luka also seemed quiet, but not for the same reasons as Sunstreaker.

Sunstreaker was quiet, simply because he didn't have much to say, and when he did he didn't quite know how to say it. Sideswipe usually did most of the talking when the two of them were around. Luka on the other hand, he didn't seem to pick up on awkward silences, and let them stretch. When he talked, it was more out of necessity than actually wanting to.

Another thing that struck Ratchet as odd was the human twin's relationship. Leighton seemed to prefer to make fun of his brother's unique way of going about social situations, rather than help him out. Like how Sideswipe would for Sunstreaker. He also hardly saw the two of them together, a stark contrast to the front-liners.

Ratchet shook his head. He didn't understand how four people who were so similar, could also be vastly different. He let the thought fade away, as the pressing issue of their new-found human forms came back into his mind, and continued down the hallway.

**AN: **

**This chapter was updated 5/3/2019**

**What do you guys think? Was the twist good? Are you on the edge of your seats? **

**Your reviews literally mean everything so don't hesitate to do those! Also, If I made any mistakes be sure to point them out to me and I'll fix them. I apologize again for the delay, my bad. Next chapter coming up in the near future...**


	5. You Waited, Time To Find Out

**Here we go… chapter 5! Sorry for the wait and Happy 4th early!**

oOo

Luka didn't like hospitals. Odd since he was a doctor. He always thought they weren't very inviting. Hospitals were a place where people showed up, and sometimes didn't leave. Sure they helped people, but there always seemed to be an eerie atmosphere around them. And he wasn't about to help fix it.

He didn't want to do this, but he needed to. Leighton needed him to.

(4 hours and 30 minutes earlier)

Creed had walked up behind him in the base. Luka didn't think anything of it, he'd been looking over Sunstreakers PT sheets until suddenly he was grabbed and pulled into a janitorial closet.

"Hi Luka." Creed smiled, as if this was a normal conversation.

"Wha-" Luka started to speak but Creed's hand covered his face, a finger to his lips.

"Shhhh." He hissed, slowly pulling his had off of Luka's face. "I need you to do something for me Luka." Luka stared back. "I've abducted your brother about four hours ago. If you want him back, you will deliver Prowl to the coordinates on this phone," Creed shoved a black smartphone into Luka's empty hand," Then, call the only number on it, and you'll get Leighton back safe and sound." Creed crossed his arms and smiled expectantly.

This was a joke. This had to be a joke. Creed was Leighton's friend, why would he do this?

Creed's smile fell slightly, seemingly irritated by the lack of reaction Luka displayed. "Unless of course you _don't_ want him back…"

"Creed why…"

"Do you want him back or not?" Creed growled quietly in the musty cleaning closet. Luka nodded.

"Then," Creed closed the space between them, jabbing a finger into Luka's chest, "I suggest you do as your told."

Luka was a lot shorter than Leighton, but only slightly shorter than Creed, so he had to look up slightly to meet his eyes. They were angry, maybe even desperate? Desperate that he'd agree?

"Why are you doing this Creed?" Luka asked calmly.

"None of your business," Creed shoved him and opened the door, "You have 48 hours to bring me Prowl or your brothers dead. I have people everywhere. If you tell anyone, I'll know, and then Leighton's dead anyway." And with that he walked down the hall.

Luka's brain was still having a hard time catching up with what had just happened. Creed… Leighton's supposed friend, had kidnapped his brother and threatened his life if he didn't bring him Prowl, the Autobot tactician. And he had 48 hours.

Luka stared at the black phone in his hand. The instructions were simple, but that didn't mean the decision was. Did he care about his brother? Yes. Did he care about the autobots? Yes. Would they ever forgive him if he handed Prowl over? Maybe, probably not. Would he be able to forgive himself if he decided to do nothing and his brother died because of it?

No.

He stuffed the phone into his pants pocket. He had 48 hours, so he could spend at least an hour to make the decision.

He climbed out of the broom closet and closed the door. Then again, every moment that he wasn't doing something, Leighton was who knows where, with who knows what happening to him.

Leighton starting walking in the direction of the gym. If he was going to do this he had to lie low, act normal. And normal at the moment, was giving Sunstreaker a physical therapy session.

oOo

"There you go... A little higher… Can you straighten it out anymore without hurting?" Sunstreaker shook his head, his leg barely off the ground. "Ok, don't push yourself too hard then, just do what you can and then do a little more every time." Luka said, writing on a clipboard.

Sunstreaker, along with Sideswipe and Ratchet had returned from visiting Prowl when Luka had told him that it would be a good time to start a Physical therapy session. That was fine but...

Something seemed off to Sunstreaker. Luka was off. He was his normal fidgety self sure, but… it was almost going overtime. Every spare second he was tapping his foot, clicking his pen, something! He had yet to make eye contact, (which Sunstreaker wasn't big on himself) but still. He seemed more on edge than usual, and Sunstreaker wanted to help.

"Luka?"

"Hmm?" Was his response, never looking up from the clipboard he was scribbling on. Sunstreaker let the silence stretch, hoping Luka would notice and eventually look up. He didn't.

His eyes weren't focused, but the pen kept moving. Sunstreaker grabbed his wrist, careful to be gentle. The pen had stopped writing a while ago, and had left circles on the side of the page.

Now Luka looked up at him, his dark brown, almost black eyes looking into Sunstreaker's blue ones.

"You ok?" Sunstreaker didn't let go and Luka didn't look away.

"Sure yeah… I'm fine…" Luka took a deep breath, "You love your brother right?" He asked suddenly, more of a clarification than an actual question.

"Yeah, I do." Sunstreaker answered after a moment, a bit surprised. The question seemed to come out of nowhere.

"If he was taken… would you do anything to get him back?"

Involuntary, submerged memories floated to the surface in Sunstreaker's mind. Not all of them were complete… just snippets here and there. One of Sideswipe being taken by Decepticons. Another one by scientists. The both of them being separated again in the gladiator pits, kept apart and isolated for so long they nearly forgot each other.

"Yeah, I would." Sunstreaker answered the question.

"Anything?"

"Anything."

oOo

Ratchet was talking with Red Alert when Sideswipe came rolling around the corner. His bright shoes being the first clue as to who it was.

"Hey Ratch, Red. Either of you seen Leighton?" The two of them glanced at each other before shaking their heads.

"Why are you wondering?" Red Alert asked skeptically, his eyes narrowing.

"Relax Red. He was just supposed to meet me at the gym."

"And?" Red Alert leaned forward in his chair.

"And he never showed up ok? I thought maybe he forgot, or had to go and do something. I was just wondering if you'd seen him around."

"How long ago was this?" Red Alert spun his chair back to his computer.

"Well…" Sideswipe walked up the stairs to stand behind Red Alert.

"Technically it was about four hours ago. He said he was gonna go to the gym and that once we got back from visiting Prowl, we could spar or something."

All of their heads turned to see one of the black SUV's pull out of the parking lot, gravel flying from behind the wheels.

"Well they're in a hurry…" Ratchet grumbled.

"How long ago did you get back?" Red Alert asked, fingers resting on top of the computer keys.

"About 30 minutes." Ratchet answered.

Red Alert typed something into the computer and a video feed came up. He rewound it to the time, 00:9:30:00 A.M. Then pressed play.

There was a hallway, the hallway that lead to the gym. A few moments passed and two people, all in black went into the bathroom, followed by…

"That's Creed isn't it?" Sideswipe pointed to the figure on the screen.

Ratchet grunted in response, leaning forward to better look at the recording.

A couple of minutes passed before Leighton's tall frame walked into view, then disappeared into the bathroom. Red Alert sped up the video feed. After what said 10 minutes on the video, Creed walked out, the two black uniformed men dragging Leighton behind them.

They all looked at each other. "What's that?" Came sunstreaker's deep voice from behind them. They'd been so intent on watching the video that none of them noticed the click click of Sunstreaker's brace.

"Creed took Leighton."

"What?! Why?" Sunstreaker rushed over to the computer console as best he could with his leg.

"We don't know." Ratchet answered him.

"I'll tell Luka…" Sideswipe turned to leave.

"Oh I think he already knows." Red Alert started another video.

It was of a similar hallway, the time stamp red about 30 minutes ago. Luka was walking down the hallway, staring down at a clipboard. Creed came up behind him and walked for a few steps before he grabbed Luka by the shoulders and shoved him into one of the janitors closets, closing the door behind him.

"What the hell…" Sideswipe mumbled. The door opened again, Creed turning and saying something back into the closet before walking down the hallway quickly. Once he was gone, Luka stepped out. He put something in his pocket.

Red Alert zoomed in on the object and paused the video. It was a phone.

"Is there any way to get audio?" Ratchet asked.

Red Alert typed a few more things into the computer, then started the video over again.

Luka walked down the hall and yelped when Creed grabbed him. Talking was audible but muffled by the door. Then the door opened, and Creed stepped out,"...have 48 hours to bring me Prowl or your brothers dead. I have people everywhere. If you tell anyone, I'll know, and then Leighton's dead anyway." Red Alert paused the video.

"Where's Luka."

"I just talked to him and… oh no." Sunstreaker trailed off. "He's going to do it."

"How do you know?" Red Alert questioned.

"He uh, he seemed a little off so I asked him what was up. He said he was fine but..."

"But what?"

"He just kind of asked me out of the blue what I'd do if Sideswipe got taken, and what would I do to get him back."

"Sideswipe," Ratchet started, "What did you tell him?"

"Anything. I said Anything, but I didn't mean…"

"We need to find Luka." Red Alert cut in. He pulled up a list of people who were allowed access to the base, and typed in Luka.

"Anyone know his last name?" Red Alert asked, his fingers hovering over the keys.

"Jones?" Sideswipe tried and Red Alert typed it in. Sure enough, 'Luka Jones' showed up with his picture. Status: checked out.

Red Alert picked up the phone, typed in a few numbers, then put it on speaker.

"Who-"

"Shhh Sideswipe."

The phone rang a few times before an unknown voice picked up.

"Has Luka Jones checked out?" Red Alert asked the operator.

"Yeah, about fifteen minutes ago."

"Did he take a vehicle?"

"Yeah, he took one of the SUV's. The black ones."

"Thank you." Red Alert hung up.

"That guy in a hurry was Luka. We need to go, now!"

oOo

(Present)

Jazz and Prowl were walking around the park at the hospital. Jazz thought it would be good to get Prowl outside to distract him. Prowl had been struggling with trying to read something for 15 minutes before he decided that enough was enough.

The guys had left about 30 minutes ago, Ratchet, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker had come to check up on Prowl.

Jazz had been amused that the grumpy Sunstreaker had volunteered to see _Prowl_ of all people. He knew that the two of them always butted heads. Prowl being all about rules and orders and Sunstreaker being all about breaking them. Sideswipe was that way too but he never really seemed to develop a beef with Prowl.

Prowl had done pretty well during the visit, Sideswipe just had to be given a constant reminder to keep his voice down. By _reminder_ I mean swat on the head by either Ratchet or Sunstreaker.

Now him and I were walking around the hospital. Prowl seemed to be doing better from this morning. He'd gotten pain killers from the doctor and he seemed steadier on his feet. The light still bothered his eyes so I picked up a pair of sunglasses from the gift shop.

"You look like bad cop." I couldn't help it, I had to.

Prowl raised a blond eyebrow from behind his mirrored aviator glasses. "Like who?"

"I'll tell ya later." I smiled at the confused expression on Prowl's face. "Come on," I slung my arm around Prowl's shoulders as we walked back into the building.

oOo

They just walked into the building. I was about 15 paces behind them. I pulled the hood of my sweatshirt over my head and ran up to the glass doors, going inside.

Room 231, second floor was their room.

_If I take the stairs I'll beat them there_

I decided. I waited in the line for the elevator, then when Prowl and Jazz went in I went for the stairs.

Once on the second floor I looked at the numbers on the doors. "229, 230… here we go." I turned the handle on the door and let myself in, closing the door behind me.

Where to hide where to hide… behind the door. Behind the door was an odd little divot. The room was completely square minus that space.

"Hey Prowl?" "Hmm?" "I… I gotta tell ya something." I heard Prowl and Jazz's voices outside of the room.

The phone by the bed rang loudly and made me jump. "That's probably the nurse," I heard Jazz mumble and the door opened.

I ducked into my hiding spot just before they looked into the room. Jazz walked passed me, then Prowl, closing the door behind him. The curtain that was in the middle of the room was up, but it wasn't all the way closed. From where I was I could see the door, but I couldn't see Jazz or Prowl. I got up slowly and peeked around the corner. I could see their shadows and hear them talking to someone on the phone.

I crept over to the door and locked it slowly, the lock making an audible *click*.

"Luka?"

I froze. They caught me. They found out. Now Leighton was gonna die. I turned towards the curtain, expecting to see Jazz and Prowl standing there, but to my surprise they weren't there.

"What, Leighton's gone?" … "Creed took him? You mean his _friend_ Creed?" …

_Believe me Jazz I was surprised too_ I thought dryly.

"Maybe we could reason with Luka? We could help him, he has to know that..."

Prowl you couldn't help if you wanted to. Unless you know, you walked yourself to my car. Creed said if I wanted Leighton back alive then I had to do it this way. Im sorry but, Leighton is more important right now.

"When are you guys going to be here?"..."ten minutes it is then. We'll call if we see him." The phone clicked into the receiver.

I had ten minutes.

"I'll go lock the door." I heard Jazz's footsteps coming closer. Now or never.

As soon as Jazz was on my side of the curtain I pounced. The element of surprise and what little momentum I had luckily knocked Jazz over. I quickly pulled a vile of 'knock out juice' out of my pocket. I was about to jab it into Jazz's neck when my arm was grabbed.

Prowl is a strong guy. He half pulled me off Jazz by my arm. Jazz started to get up but I was in the perfect position to kick him in the gut. So I did, hard.

And so Prowl punched me in the face. "Stop, we can help you..." With my free arm I elbowed him in the knee. He punched me again. "I know your doing this for your brother but we can do this another way."

I had dropped the vile. Where was that… there. It was behind Prowl. Jazz was getting up now. I reached in my pocket and Prowl twisted my arm in a way it probably shouldn't go. "Luka…"

I turned on the bright flashlight and stood up quickly, shining it into Prowl's eyes. He hissed and closed his eyes, letting go of me to involuntarily hold his head. While Prowl was distracted I grabbed the vile. I guess this one's for you. I jabbed the vile into Prowl's side, emptying its contents into his bloodstream.

Now it was Jazz's turn to tackle me. "You're not going to take him!" My back slammed into the wall. I'm pretty sure something cracked.

Jazz had me pinned, one hand holding my arm down, and his forearm under my throat. He was pressing down hard. I grabbed at his arm trying in vain to get some pressure off of my windpipe. Jazz seemed dead set on making me pass out.

"We'll get Leighton back another way Luka. Just stop and we'll help you."

"..can't." I ground out. I'd given up on trying to pull Jazz's arm off and opted for grabbing my other vile instead.

"I can only do this one way." I jabbed the other syringe into Jazz's neck. 30 seconds I had to wait 30 seconds.

I was seriously beginning to run out of air. I kneed Jazz in the stomach but he shifted only slightly. I tried pulling his arm off and I managed to move it enough to breathe. Jazz was visibly deteriorating. He kept blinking, the drug beginning to take effect. I summoned all of my energy and shoved him off of me.

He staggered back and nearly tripped over Prowl's legs. He had already fallen asleep do to the drug.

"Luka please," Jazz begged, wobbling on his feet. He fell back against the wall and slid down it, fighting to stay awake. "Please don't take him, we can help-"

"You don't understand Jazz. You can't help." I walked over and knelt down by Jazz to look at him. "I do this the right way, I get Leighton back. I don't, he's dead simple as that." I got up and turned around, quickly picking up the viles. I turned my attention back to Prowl to see that Jazz had crawled over to him.

"I'll get you back Prowl…" I heard him mutter. Shit Jazz why'd you have to do that?

I bent down and threw Prowl over my shoulder. He was a little bigger than I was, so I struggled with the weight. "I don't want to do this Jazz, I'm sorry." I opened the door and walked out of the room.

oOo

"Sunstreaker see if you can find his car and wait by it." Ratchet told him when they stopped the car. Sunstreaker jumped out, complete in his yellow armour and helmet. He definitely wouldn't draw attention.

The others drove up to the front of the hospital. Red Alert stayed in the car, Ratchet and Sideswipe ran in. "We're going to their room first." Ratchet barked, heading towards the stairwell, Sideswipe close behind.

oOo

I'm taking the elevator. The bots were probably here by now, and if that's true, they'd be in a hurry to check up on Jazz and Prowl, and so they'd most likely take the stairs.

I pressed the button for down and the doors dinged open immediately. Perfect. Once the doors closed, I hit the button for level 1. Something out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. A blinking green light on Prowl's boot. A tracker.

Jazz you sly dog. I reached up to remove it but I stopped. Maybe I could bend the rules a little with Creed's directions.

oOo

Room 231. Ratchet and Sideswipe pushed the door open only for it to get stuck on something. Jazz.

Ratchet looked him over. He looked a little roughed up but otherwise fine. The bigger issue was Prowl wasn't here. "Ratchet to Sunstreaker and Red Alert. Luka was just here. Do not let him leave!"

"Not to be rude but if he was just here how did we miss him?" There was silence for a few moments as the two of them closed and locked the door to room 231. Both of their eyes noticed the same thing.

"The elevator."

oOo

I parked in the back parking lot. The black SUV was close to the exit. I looked through the glass windows, no one in sight. I opened the door.

I left the tracker on. Actually I put it in Prowl's pocket so it wouldn't get lost. If I did what I was told, after I got Leighton back we could track Prowl and get him back too.

I jogged over to the SUV as best I could carrying someone who weighed more than I did. I opened the back door and basically threw Prowl into the back. I slammed the door, intent on getting straight into the driver's seat…

oOo

I saw Luka come out of the hospital. He had Prowl over his shoulders. How no one saw him I didn't know.

I ducked behind the SUV, unsure whether or not he saw me. I figured he didn't when I heard the door on the other side open. I got up slowly and crept around the front.

Luka slammed the door and stood face to face with me.

"Luka.." I started towards him but he backed up out of my reach.

"Back up." He pulled a handgun from behind him.

"Luka when I said anything, I didn't mean this…"

"It's a little too late for that Sunstreaker." Luka's hand was steady. "I have a plan though…" he continued, "to get Prowl back."

"Let us help-"

"You can't. It won't work if it looks like you wanted me to take him."

"Luka-" I took a step closer.

"Sunstreaker I need you to trust me." Luka stepped back again, just out of reach.

Sunstreaker didn't know what to do. He could lunge at Luka. He might shoot him. Or he could let Luka go.

"Your plan, it will help Leighton and Prowl?" Sunstreaker clarified. Luka nodded, looking into his eyes.

Sunstreaker couldn't tell him no. If this worked, they'd get Leighton and Prowl back. If he stopped him now, who knows what would happen to Leighton.

"Then I trust you."

oOo

**7/2/19****Sorry for the wait! I had a lot of things going I was reading fanfiction instead of writing it… :) any whoo… im trying to get back on my grind so expect another chapter soon… see ya then!****(Btw don't forget to comment, it feeds me)**


	6. You're in the Hurt Locker Now

**IM BACK BABYYYY. I'll leave notes at the end of the chapter because you have waited so long. Read away!**

**oOo**

"You really expect us to believe, that Luka. As in, _Leighton's brother_ Luka. The Luka that is negative 2 times your size, got away from you?" Jazz all but growled across the table at Sunstreaker. Sunstreaker knew he had never been good at lying, he'd just hoped it would take Jazz a little longer to figure it out.

"Jazz calm down…" Red Alert tried to calm the mech next to him that was almost shaking with Rage.

"Calm down!?" Jazz's fist slammed into the table, making a dent. "Luka is taking Prowl to who knows where and you want me to calm down!"

The truth was bound to come out eventually, one way or the other.

"I let him get away."

Jazz turned his cold, angry gaze towards him. "You what?"

"I let-"

"No I heard you. I just dont understand why you would do somethiNG SO STUPID."

"Jazz!" Ratchet barked, "That's enough. Sunstreaker explain yourself."

Tense silence settled over the small meeting room. Sideswipe was speechless for once.

"He told me he had a plan, but it wouldn't work unless it looked like he escaped."

"Yeah no frag he had a plan! His plan was to take Prowl! And you let him!"

"Only because he _left_ your tracker on Prowl!"

"He what?" Jazz blinked behind his visor. He and the rest of his group had put their armour back on. Though it wasn't comfortable to sleep in, they felt odd without it.

"He found it, and put it in Prowl's pocket." Sunstreaker clarified. "I think his idea was to drop him off at wherever Creed said. That way we could get Prowl back and find out what Creed's up to at the same time."

"That's clever." Ratchet scratched his chin.

"He's still dead when I get my hands on 'im." Jazz said angrily, losing some of his steam with the relief that he still had a way to find Prowl. "We give Luka four hours. If he's not back with Leighton then we're breaking into wherever he's taken Prowl."

oOo

Luka parked the large SUV in the middle of an all to sketchy alley. Creed was keeping up with the creep factor.

He pulled out the cellphone he was given, and pressed _call_ next to the only contact on the phone. After the first ring someone picked up.

"Do you have him Luka?" Creed's grisly voice asked over the line.

"Yes." Luka answered simply, keeping his voice even.

"Good. Your brother will be happy to hear that. He kept telling me that you weren't going to show…" He heard muffled laughter, and what sounded like someone moving around. "Isn't that right Leighton?" There was a pause of tense silence, then something that sounded like a groan.

"Luka it's a tra-!" The distinct sound of Leighton's voice was heard over the line was abruptly cut off.

"Where is he." Luka spoke slowly into the phone, demanding.

"You're in no position to-"

"Make demands? Who has Prowl Creed? I do. And if you want him I get my brother back."

A knocking sound on the window caught Luka's attention. On the other side Creed stood smiling, phone to his ear. "Actually…" He put some sort of tablet against the glass. A live feed, from what Luka could tell, was playing. He couldn't help it. He leaned forward.

On the screen a shadowed figure sat tied to a chair. Whoever had the camera on the other end moved it to the figures face. It was Leighton.

The cameraman grabbed him by his hair and tilted his head up. He was unconscious with duct tape over his mouth.

"..this is how it's going to work." Creed smiled at Luka's obvious shock and anger, bringing the twin back to his current surroundings. "If you want your brother, you give me Prowl."

oOo

"I got the location." Jazz said, already running towards one of the SUV's.

"Woah woah slow down, we don't know what we're walking into. We are going to need backup." Ratchet stopped him.

"Slag your backup." Jazz snapped, "I'm going to get Prowl." Jazz tried to push past, but the sturdy medic held fast.

"I want to get him back just as badly as you do Jazz. Right now you need to set your _personal feelings_ aside and get your head on straight. Be smart about this."

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker gaped. They never thought that Ratchet would be the one to call out the two lovebirds. Life was full of surprises.

"My what?" Jazz looked both dumbfounded and surprised at the same time.

"You know what." Ratchet kept eye contact, not letting Jazz getaway.

"For a saboteur, you're kind of obvious." Sideswipe grinned at his brother, who couldn't help a smirk tracing his lips.

"Just wait till we get back up situated. It won't take long, then we'll go and get Prowl. Ok?" Ratchet reassured Jazz, sending the twins a quick glare.

A few moments passed before the saboteur nodded.

oOo

Luka mentally checked that he put the tracker in Prowl's pocket for the 100th time. He didn't really have a choice. He could either hand Prowl over, or Creed and his men surrounding the car would take him. He couldn't play difficult any more.

"Ok." He said, setting the phone down and showing both palms to Creed before opening his door. All guns were trained on him as he walked around the vehicle to the rear doors. He opened one and half of his body disappeared inside.

A gun was inside. How many bullets does it have? Good question. Was it even loaded? Also a good question. Did he know the answers? No. No he did not.

_Luka you need to play the game. The tracker will work._ His inner monologue was actually helpful for once.

He grabbed Prowl under the arms and drug him out the best he could. His superior weight and height proving to be a bit difficult. But he carried him out of the hospital didn't he? That was something.

_Wow now you're complimenting yourself on how well you kidnapped someone. nice..._

As soon as Prowl's top half was out of the car a couple of Creed's men took over, practically pulling Prowl out of his arms. Not good.

"My brother?" Luka cast a side glance of Prowl being drug away.

"Oh yeah about that…" Creed pretended like he felt bad. Like when two soccer moms plan to meet up but the other one 'forgets'. "You probably should worry more about you right now."

As if on cue, two of Creed's men grabbed him. Luka was never one to be considered 'strong', but that didn't stop him from trying to get away any way.

"Make sure he doesn't wake up." Creed called over his shoulder as he walked out of the alley, only some of his men following.

oOo

"It should be right over here…" Jazz trailed off. They were almost right on top of where the coordinates said Prowl was.

"Let's look around." Lennox told him, parking the car. "Sweep the area." He ordered over his radio. The Autobots and humans alike got out of the SUV's, guns ready and looking for any sign or Creed, Prowl, or Luka.

They were in the middle of city ghettos, no one was around. Except for a kid or two tagging the abandoned, crumbling buildings with spray paint.

Everyone split up into groups of two. Jazz went with Sunstreaker, an attempt to keep Sideswipe on track by pairing him with Ratchet. Red Alert had stayed on base, so Lennox went with a fellow soldier.

They covered four square blocks, no sign of Creed, Prowl or Luka. That's what they thought.

"Hey Jazz?" Sunstreaker's voice brought Jazz out of his brooding. He turned his attention to the alleyway that Sunstreaker pointed down.

Something was glistening in the sunlight that filtered into the alleyway. At first Jazz thought it was a puddle of oil, but the color was off. It was only until he walked up to it that he realized what it was.

It was blood.

A lot of blood.

Jazz's worry spiked. Was this Prowl's? His visored eyes followed the blood trail. Their were spatters of it on the black asphalt, some drag marks. Drag marks that lead somewhere…

Sunstreaker and Jazz's eyes found the large dumpster at the same time. It was the large metal ones that could only be picked up by garbage trucks.

"No no no…" Jazz lunged towards the trash can, but a large yellow form stopped him.

"You might not want to look in there." Sunstreaker blocked his path.

"_MOVE_." Jazz pushed him roughly, but Sunstreaker was built larger than he was. So, Jazz had to play dirty.

When he was his normal self, his Cybertronian self, he had some pulse generators in his hands. Now he had a taser rod.

He put it on the lowest setting and tapped Sunstreaker's side with it, effectively making the warrior seize up long enough for Jazz to get around him.

He felt guilty for the relief that spread through him when he tossed the lid open. It wasn't Prowl. It was someone else.

"Thank Primus…" he breathed. "It's not Prowl." Jazz told a grumpy Sunstreaker who stalked up behind him.

"Who is it?"

"I don't know…" Jazz looked over the face of the person lying inside the garbage. Their face was half turned away from him. They had some scruff on their face, along with brown grown out hair. That was the first sign that it wasn't Prowl. Prowl… human Prowl didn't look like that.

Jazz flung both coverings off the bin, exposing a blue, bullet proof vest to the light. The letters, 'EMT' stamped on the front of it. Jazz and Sunstreaker came to the same horrifying realization at the same time, only the latter vocalized it first.

"That's Luka."

All of the pent up anger that had been building inside Jazz vanished. The kid looked like he was dead.

"I- I didn't mean it…"

"Ratchet." Sunstreaker barked over the radio, "We found Luka. He needs medal attention. Now." Sunstreaker had never been that formal but, there's a first time for everything.

"Jazz climb in there and help me get him up." Sunstreaker told him, Jazz following quickly.

Sunstreaker was able to bend half way into the bin and hook both of his arms under Luka's, Jazz hoisting his legs over the edge.

Luka groaned quietly just as Jazz was reaching to check his pulse, fresh blood dripping out of his mouth. "Thank Primus he's alive…" Jazz whispered under his breath. "Set im down."

Sunstreaker sat down with Luka between his arms, the barely breathing EMT leaning on him. Sunstreaker didn't look like he had any intention of moving.

"Don't worry Luka Ratchet's coming." He tried to comfort him, but the way his brown eyes were glassy and unfocused he didn't know if the kid heard him.

Ratchet, Lennox, and a handful of others came sprinting around the corner, lots of eyes widening at the state Luka was in.

"Jesus," Lennox mouthed before running over to the young medical officer. Dried and fresh blood covered his face, along with black and blue bruises that had begun to swell. By the way he looked like he had other injuries too, but those were covered by clothes…

"Out of the way." A female in a red jacket all but shoved Lennox and Jazz aside. She opened each of Luka's eyes one at a time, shining a small light into them.

"Luka can you hear me?" She asked quickly and loudly. Glassy eyes blinking lazily was her only response.

"Someone call an ambulance now." She ordered not looking at anyone. "I want one of ours, not the civilians." Lennox promptly got out his phone and started dialing.

The woman… Devyn by the nametag on her jacket, took Luka's vest off. "Lay him down." Sunstreaker did as he was told and the woman laid Luka' head on the bloodied vest. The unzipped his hoodie and lifted his black t-shirt up.

His body looked like his face. Bloody and bruised. Particularly nasty marks covered his ribcage. They were dark and oval shaped, most likely from a boot kicking him several times.

The sound of ambulance sirens could be heard in the distance.

"Where is EMS coming to?"

"I told them we'd be by the gate of the lot."

"Two of you go and wait by the gate. When they get here wheel the gurney over here. I'm not moving him."

Devyn rummaged through a red bag with a white cross on it, pulling out a couple of clear IV bags and needles. "Does anyone know Luka's blood type?" She directed Sunstreaker to sit Luka up so she could get his sweatshirt off to find a vein.

Now that his sleeves were gone she noticed that his arm was swelling just around the wrist, the bruise a mix of dark purple and yellow. That was definitely broken. The other arm didn't look as bad so she picked that one to stick an IV bag in.

"Hold this," She held up the IV bag with clear liquid in it to the nearest set of hands.

"Luka is O-." Lennox told her after a moment, looking down at his phone. He must've been going through medical records.

"Why couldn't you be AB+?" Jazz heard her mutter under her breath, "Is anyone else O-?" No one raised their hands.

"What about you four?" She waved a hand at the autobots.

"We actually don't know. Everyone's fuel type is the same for Cybertronians so…" Sideswipe answered ever so helpfully.

The small crowd of soldiers parted for two EMTs wheeling a gurney down the alleyway.

"He's over here." Devyn directed them to Luka. They stared at the autobot's clothing, (but they didn't know who they were) a few odd glances but they quickly dismissed them quickly, focusing on the emergency taking place.

Devyn told the medical staff what Luka's condition was, and they quickly put him on the gurney and began to roll him away.

"We'll have to go in a different car but I need you four to come with me."

The EMT's got in the ambulance and closed the doors, driving away. The autobots, Devyn and Lennox got into a separate SUV and followed. The rest of the team was told to finish up and report anything they found.

Once in the car Devyn started to take everyone's blood. Not in the creepy, vampire way but in the medically licensed way. She pricked each of the autobot's fingers and had them wipe that finger on a card. Everyone waited a few minutes, watching Devyn closely. Her expression was blank before her eyebrows knit together.

"You know Sideswipe… It is Sideswipe isn't it?" Sideswipe nodded. "For all of your fuel being the same, your blood is not. All except you and your brothers are different."

"Is there a blood type that matches Luka's" Ratchet asked.

"Yes." Devyn smiled. "Jazz is also O-."

Everyone looked at Jazz with mixed expressions. Some thought he was still mad at Luka for taking Prowl. Other's knew how badly he felt.

"So should we pull the ambulance over or…" Jazz questioned awkwardly, not liking everyone staring at him.

" I told them to call us if they have any-" Devyn was interrupted by her phone ringing. "Hello?"

Silence.

"Lennox pull over."

**oOo**

**updated 8/18/2019**

**I don't even have a good excuse as to why this is so late. It's summer? And I'm lazy? hehe**

**Thanks again for reading, your comments keep me going. (if anyone has any ideas for future chapters don't hesitate to share with me)**

**Don't worry if the next one's late. It's still coming it's just slow. **

**Until next time! hasta luego**


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